The next day
School SEKAI
1
Shiho
That should be good for practice today.
Nice work, everyone.
2
Saki
Yikes! No more!
My fingers are cramping up...!
3
Ichika
Haha. To be fair, Saki, your part is pretty hard.
4
Shiho
Saki, make sure you ice your hands so that you don't get tendonitis.
5
Saki
Oh, yeah, I forgot!
Thanks, Shiho!
6
Ichika
Right... It'd be awful to get injured just before our show.
7
Saki
But I still need more time to practice. My fingers really freeze up when I ice my hands.
8
Shiho
I understand how you feel, but resting is just as important, okay...?
9
Saki
O-Okay...!
10
Saki
(But...
I'm still terrible. I really don't want to fall even further behind than I already am...)
11
Saki
(Wait, that's right...!
I have a way to help everybody out...!)
12
Saki
So about coming up with our own song...
13
Ichika
Oh, sorry... I wasn't able to come up with anything new.
14
Honami
Me neither...
I thought about it afterward when I got home, but drew a complete blank...
15
Shiho
I could only come up with one, and even then, it's just copying this band I listen to...
16
Ichika
How about you, Saki? Did you manage to come up with something?
17
Saki
Heh heh heh...
18
Saki
Ta-daa! Look!
I've got a bunch here!
19
Honami
What...?!
You mean all of these, Saki...?!
20
Shiho
One, two, three...
You made ten?
21
Saki
Hehe. I got so many good ideas last night, and I wrote them all down!
22
Honami
That's incredible, Saki.
There's so many...!
23
Ichika
You're right. All of these in one night...?
24
Saki
Hehe. Aren't I amazing♪
25
Shiho
Yeah, you are...
26
Shiho
I'd like to hear some of them. Mind playing one for us, Saki?
27
Saki
Sure! I'll play some right now!
28
Saki
And that's the last one.
What do you think...?
29
Shiho
...
30
Honami
I... I thought they all sounded really nice but...
31
Ichika
Exactly...
They sounded modern like they were made to become popular...
32
Ichika
But...
33
Saki
But...?
34
Shiho
I can't put my finger on it...
35
Shiho
But I have a hard time imagining us playing any of these during an actual show.
36
Saki
Us during an actual show...
37
Honami
It's so strange too. These melodies are so well made too, and I wouldn't be surprised if I heard these played for a music show on TV...
38
Ichika
Yeah, they even sound cool but...
39
Saki
Nooo! Why is this so hard?!
40
Honami
I-I'm sorry, Saki! I know it's a little unfair for us to say anything like that since we didn't really contribute...
41
Shiho
Each phrase was put together really well and I could tell that a lot of thought went into them.
42
Saki
But if we can't agree on it as a band, they won't really be our songs... *Sob*
43
Shiho
Saki...
44
Shiho
There's no need for you to feel rushed. We agreed that it's going to take time for us to come up with our own songs, right?
45
Saki
Yeah, I know...
46
Ichika
But I understand how you feel, Saki.
47
Ichika
I want our song to be the best it can be too.
48
Honami
I agree with Ichika, and thank you for doing this for us, Saki...
49
Shiho
Then how about we use Saki's work as a basis next time to think about what kind of music we want to play as a band...?
50
Ichika
Okay. Let's sleep on it and see what we all come up with.
51
Saki
Yeah...!
And I'll keep doing my best to come up with something that really hits home!
52
Saki
(It's a small step forward, but I'm helping everybody out...!)
53
Saki
(But...)
54
Saki
(I spent so much time on these yesterday...)
55
Shiho
...
That night
Saki's Room
56
Saki
Hmm...
What should I do...?
57
Saki
I focused on melodies yesterday, so I could try thinking about chords today...
58
Saki
Okay, let's do that!
Maybe it'll sound more original then!
59
Saki
Alright, time to get to work!
60
Saki
Hmm...
61
Saki
I want to try making a few more, but I feel like I'm all over the place now...
62
Saki
This isn't working...
What can I do to make it better?
63
Saki
I feel like I'm close, but none of them still sound right...
64
Saki
I really thought that I'd be able to help everyone by doing this too...
65
Shiho
It might be because we don't know exactly what kind of music we want to play yet.
66
Ichika
The kind of music we want to play...
67
Saki
...
68
Saki
Come to think about it, what kind of music do I want to play...?
69
Saki
We decided to go pro together...
70
Saki
But I don't think I ever thought about what exactly I wanted to try playing.
71
Saki
*Sigh*
72
Saki
It's like nothing's going the right way now...
Next Chapter: For Now, Let's Watch